Race, Ethnicity, and Culture

Foreword I have spent much of my professional life working in equality, governance and education, sitting in managing staff, teaching in classrooms, speaking in boardrooms, delivering training, challenging policy, and listening to lived experiences. I have heard the quiet exhaustion in the voices of people who have had to prove they belong. I have seen […]

What Is Racism? Why It Matters. How To Be Anti-Racist.(With guidance for UK organisations preparing for Black History Month in October) During Black History Month in the United States (February), people reflect on history, justice, civil rights and equality. In the UK, Black History Month takes place in October. Although the histories differ, the core

History shows us a troubling pattern: when certain groups are deemed “less capable” or “less worthy,” their rights are slowly eroded. They are pushed to the margins, their voices silenced, and their contributions overlooked. Yet in moments of national crisis, those same groups are suddenly called upon to step forward, to rebuild, to serve, and

Recent news stories about Nigel Farage’s racist behaviour in his youth have prompted a familiar public response. Some rush to minimise it: “It was a different time.” “He was young.” “People are too offended now.” These reactions miss the point entirely. Racism is not something people are born with. It is learned. It is absorbed

Racism in the UK is not an occasional outburst or something that only happens “over there.” It is a pattern visible in statistics but lived as experience in boardrooms and classrooms, in council offices and hospital wards. To confront racism, we must see it where it already exists, understand how it harms people, and commit

Racism in the UK is not only the rare, headline-grabbing incident. For many people, it is a pattern: repeated barriers, coded messages, unequal outcomes, and the quiet fatigue of having to prove again and again that what they experienced was real. The most difficult truth is this: racism can exist even when nobody “means it.”

For decades, the UK has grappled with the consequences of racial disparity across policing, the criminal justice system, and the media. From the 1970s “mugging” narratives to the treatment of the Stephen Lawrence family, our country has repeatedly witnessed how racialised crime reporting fuels fear, reinforces stereotypes, and inflicts lasting harm on communities of colour.